The present invention relates to managing electronic mail. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a system and method for filtering, formatting and digesting electronic mail.
Electronic mail (email) provides a quick and convenient way for computer users to communicate. This communication is initiated by a message sender who composes the message using an email program, provides the email address of the intended recipient, and often provides an indication of the content (subject matter) of the message by providing text in a xe2x80x9cSubjectxe2x80x9d field. The composed message is then sent to the recipient""s email address. The recipient""s computer receives the message and stores it in the recipient""s mail inbox. The recipient can then read, delete, respond to, or otherwise process the message stored within the inbox.
A sender can address a single message to many recipients by separating the addresses of the recipients with a comma or addressing the message to a mailing list (distribution list). Each of these recipients may respond to the original message by sending a reply message to the same list of recipients or only to the author. Some of these recipients may then respond to the first reply message. These reply messages are termed follow-up messages to the original message. This process facilitates a vigorous discussion between the original sender and the recipients, as well as between the recipients. However, the reply messages include a substantial amount of unnecessary information, such as, header text, quoted information from the previous messages, signature blocks, and more.
Examples of application programs that are recipients of email for group discussion include list server system (listservers). A listserver can receive mail addressed to the email address of a mailing list serviced by the listserver, and forward (redistributes) that received mail to the subscribers of the mailing list. A mailing list is often concerned with a particular subject matter, for example, birdlovers@sierraclub.org. The listserver also services commands contained in messages sent directly to the email address of the listserver application (as compared to messages sent to the email address of the mailing list serviced by the listserver).
xe2x80x9cSubscribexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cunsubscribexe2x80x9d command messages are typically recognized by listserver. Those interested in the subject matter of the mailing list and wanting to join the mailing list send a xe2x80x9csubscribexe2x80x9d command message to the listserver controlling the mailing list. The listserver maintains a recipient database that comprises the email address of each recipient (member). The listserver indiscriminately forwards every email message sent to the email address of the mailing list to the email address of every member in the recipient database. This can result in large number of email messages in each subscriber""s inbox. A member may send an xe2x80x9cunsubscribexe2x80x9d command message to the listserver to remove the member""s email address from the recipient database and thus stop the listserver from forwarding, to the member any subsequent messages addressed to the mailing list.
Mailing lists can be managed directly by some human agency, a listserver application, or a combination of both. Some mailing lists are moderated by a human who reviews all incoming messages prior to forwarding them to the mailing list subscribers. Other mailing lists are not moderated, and messages sent to the unmoderated group are automatically forwarded to the rest of the subscribers without any processing.
One of the problems with many mailing lists is that any person, even a non-member, can send messages directed to the mailing list resulting in unrelated messages or unwanted solicitation of the members. Another problem is that a substantial amount of unrelated and unnecessary information such as header text, quoted material, signature blocks, etc., is embedded within each message. This unrelated information unnecessarily obscures the substance of the message. Yet another problem associated with mailing lists is that members often forget which listserver manages each of the mailing lists subscribed to by the members. Many busy people will forget the lists they subscribed to, which listserver supports each list, and how to subscribe to, and unsubscribe from each list. Subscribers"" needs also differ, but the current listservers do not take this into account. The present invention allows subscribers to control how often they receive digests, what format the digests take, and other options generally unavailable to each individual.
For these reasons, among others, senders and recipients of email messages need a system and a computer software to facilitate and manage their email messages to and from a discussion group. The present invention addresses these problems and simplifies a sender""s and a recipient""s use of discussion groups by providing mechanisms for filtering the email messages, divesting the messages of unnecessary information and digesting the messages to provide a feeling of continuity, community and a conversational text.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the above described systems and provides an economical method, system, and computer program product for providing enhanced capabilities to senders and recipients of email messages. One aspect of the invention is a computer controlled method for selectively filtering email messages, divesting the messages of unnecessary information and digesting the messages to provide a desired message format, such as a conversational text.
One embodiment of the present invention is a method and system that enables an email user to specify a desired digest format for receiving email messages directed to a discussion group. The email messages are digested to have a feeling of a group conversation that takes place in email. The conversation can include more than two people at a time. Since the conversation does not happen in real rime, the community members can collect, read, and reply to the messages at their convenience and using their preferred format.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method and system are provided for delivering digested electronic mail to members of a discussion group. Information about the members of the discussion group is stored in a database. When the system receives an email message addressed to the discussion group, it sorts through the received message to find a destination community email address. The system stores the message in an archive (in the database) for that community. Subsequently, at intervals specified by each individual member, the system gathers the member""s unread messages from the archive, finds the member""s email address in the members database for that community, digests the messages in the format selected by that member, and sends out the digest.